Articles

The U.S. economy is at a critical intersection. Privately-held businesses have long been the driving force of the economy, and are now in a period of transition that has been building up for the last 50 years. Baby boomers own an unprecedented number of businesses and hold an unprecedented proportion of U.S. private wealth. Having propelled the booming U.S. economy since the early 1990s, baby boomers have now reached their peak in the consumer spending cycle.

There is an increasing distortion and manipulation of economic data by the government to present an alternative reality of the current state of the economy. In particular, this blog discusses the massaging of inflation, GDP, unemployment and U.S. deficit statistics.

We’re just coming off the back of a month when the Dow Jones lost almost 10%. Should this mean anything to you if you were planning to sell your business? We should try to separate perception and reality; future expectations and historical performance and discuss how they intersect.

Private equity has been in a lot of headlines lately … and many of those for the wrong reasons. Mitt Romney, a private equity success story, has brought unprecedented attention to the industry, amid political and public calls for sweeping changes to the tax treatment of their earnings; in an economic climate that has already hurt many private equity firms. In spite of all the negative press, a recent survey by CFO.com, along with Rothstein Kass, has revealed a positive outlook from those in the business; at least according to their survey responses

If you are considering selling your business in 2012, you need to consider the full sale process, from start to finish. Oftentimes, a business owner has so many other commitments and so little time, that they focus on the front-end of the sale process and work through the later stage of the process when the time comes. What we’re talking about today is why it is critical to consider the complete sale process at the outset and we’ll talk through some common mistakes and potential consequences.

Business insolvency has been increasing over the last few years and continues to be a significant problem in Oklahoma and across the US, with increased business bankruptcy filings through 2010 and sustaining elevated levels in 2011, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute.

According to participants in yesterday’s Bricktown Capital Conference in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma has a need for more robust venture capital, nurture capital and in some cases private equity, when an entrepreneur needs between $1 million and $5 million to fuel the growth of their business. For any higher amounts, out of state capital is targeting Oklahoma companies, and for amounts below $1 million, there are small business grants, loans, incentives, family money and even bootstrapping that can provide the required capital. It is the critical gap in between where we need to focus our efforts.